Fish off Sri Lanka's Menu as Industry Washed Away
Date: 10-Jan-05
Country: SRI LANKA
Author: Arjuna Wickramasinghe
Aiyya, 47, started the New Year not knowing exactly how to collect the pieces of his shattered life after giant waves wiped out the small fishing village he lived in on Dec. 26 and left two of his three expensive trawlers beyond repair.
"The boats that were at sea on Boxing Day were spared. Every other vessel docked inside the harbour was destroyed or damaged," he said, sailing off the coast near the southern fishing hamlet of Hikkaduwa.
The Indian Ocean island's fisheries sector bore the brunt of tsunami waves which killed 30,000 people in Sri Lanka, about 5,000 of them fishermen. It also reduced a 1,500-strong trawler fleet to just 200.
"The boats are not insured, we hope the government will compensate us. Right now the industry is dead," Aiyya said.
Sri Lanka produces about 300,000 tonnes of fish annually, contributing between two and three percent of the island's gross domestic product.
The sector earns about $100 million a year exporting shrimp, lobster, tuna and shark fins, largely to Japan, the European Union and the United States.
The government says the industry, which supports more than a million people, will take at least seven months to recover from the setbacks caused by the tsunami.
In the capital Colombo, fishmongers at the city's central fish market are worried at the nosedive in demand for fish.
"We earned around 60,000 rupees ($700) a day but that has gone down and stocks in the cold rooms are running out," said Imitiaz, a fishmonger for more than 25 years.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
Other dealers in Colombo feared a drastic drop in sales as many are steering clear, fearing fish and shellfish could be feeding on corpses washed out to sea.
Tamil Tiger rebels have banned fishing in areas of the northeast of the island that they control for that very reason.
"It is a big health risk, so I asked my wife not to buy any fish for the next month," said 32-year-old teacher, D. Gunarathne.
The Sri Lankan government is trying to dispel the public's fears, and encourage a return to the island's staple diet.
"All these people are paranoid -- it is mass paranoia. Most fishes don't feed on rotting corpses," said Nandasena Bambarawanage, secretary of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Fisheries.
"I can give you a guarantee that it is absolutely safe to eat fish," he said.
At least 156,000 people were killed in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean by the tsunami, and fears of contaminated fish are widespread.
"I won't eat fish, there are corpses in the sea ... and the fish eat those corpses. I won't eat fish for at least a year," said Hendra, 34, a worker at a medicine supply firm in Indonesia's devastated Aceh.
Fish sales have also fallen sharply in southern India and fish consumption had fallen from 50 tonnes to just 2 tonnes in Chennai, according to media reports.
Most fishermen in southern India and Sri Lanka are not venturing out to sea because they are either too shocked or their boats are damaged.
Some are also reluctant to repair their vessels, fearing they will lose the chance to get a free new boat from their governments as compensation if they are seen fishing.
Back in Hikkaduwa, Aiyya manoeuvred his remaining trawler to port in waters strewn with engine parts and boat debris.
"Our life was hard enough the way it was. Why was the sea so unkind to us, to the very people who revered it like a God?" he asks.
